Fresh Tart

I've written before about the beauty of braising a pork shoulder one day, then crafting several meals from it as the week wears on. This version is more basic than the Pork Braised with Chiles & Cinnamon, which means you can eat it even more ways. Seasoned with onions, garlic, salt, and pepper, the finished roast can be eaten as is with its rich pan juices. (Mmmashed potatoes would be a perfect accompaniment.)

Then the next day you can warm some of the pork with hoisin sauce and roll it in lettuce leaves with rice, scallions, pickled vegetables or kimchi, and a dab of chile sauce. Or ginger scallion sauce. Oh my goodness YES.

Then the next day you can warm some of the pork with barbecue sauce, and spoon it into a crusty roll with a caraway-seed studded coleslaw. You could slather ginger scallion sauce on this too, because seriously, that stuff belongs on everything.

Then for the last batch, you can fry the pork into a gloriously crispy hash along with potatoes, peppers, and onions, moistening it with pan juices as you go, topping it with a poached egg, but of course.

What are your ideas?

Basic Braised Pork Shoulder

1 boneless or bone-in pork shoulder (sizes can vary greatly)
Kosher salt
2 Tbsp. high heat vegetable oil or bacon fat
1 yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, smashed & peeled
1 1/2 c. chicken broth or water
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

Sprinkle pork shoulder on all sides with Kosher salt, rubbing it in a bit. Heat a Dutch oven (that can snugly hold the roast and has a fitted lid) over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add the roast and brown thoroughly - to a deep golden brown - on that side. Flip the roast and brown thoroughly on the next side, continuing until all sides (including the ends) of the roast are evenly browned. Remove the roast to a plate and set aside.

With the pan still over heat, add the onions and garlic to the pan. Stir around for about 7-8 minutes, until vegetables are beginning to soften and look glassy. Add the chicken broth or water to the pan and top with the roast. Add a few turns of black pepper to the pan and bring liquid to a simmer. Cover pan and transfer to oven.

Bake for 3 hours, perhaps more, depending on the size of your shoulder. The pork is done when the meat is very, very tender and is easy to pull apart with a fork.

Transfer roast to a cutting board and let rest. Meanwhile, spoon fat from pan juices. Puree defatted pan juices with an immersion blender or by transferring to a stand-up blender (be careful when blending hot liquid). Return pan juices to the pan and season to taste.

Pull roast apart into bite-sized pieces, discarding any large pieces of fat, and stir into the pan juices. Serve immediately or cool to room temperature, cover and chill.

I'm really enjoying the concepts and recipes in my new cookbook, Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way, by Francis Mallman.  In particular, I'm a bit obsessed with cooking vegetables on a chapa - (from the book) a flat piece of cast iron or a cast-iron skillet set over a fire.  I'm using my big Le Creuset cast-iron skillet, set on my Weber gas grill.  I preheat the grill until it's very hot (600+ degrees F), then lay the pan on the grate and preheat it until it's hot too.  Most of the recipes in Seven Fires are cooked on a chapa, which quickly sears and caramelizes food - perfect for vegetables.  I mean prrrrrfect. I've created two insanely simple and delicious dishes so far - one Friday night for my friend Michelle (alongside salmon), the other tonight for just John and me.  Tomorrow?  Yep, but more on that in a second.

Let me back up a bit and explain the two dishes I've already made.  The first was Burnt Fennel and Zucchini with Parmesan, Lemon, and Basil (recipe here).  The technique is to thinly slice the vegetables, separately toss them with a bit of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper, then cook them separately (fennel first, pictured above, then the zucchini) on the hot (unoiled) chapa until tender and blackened in spots.  The warm vegetables are tossed together and finished with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, chopped fresh herbs, and crumble of Parmesan cheese.  I plated the vegetables over a slice of grilled whole-grain bread, and served alongside salmon fillets that I also cooked on the chapa (Arthur, if you're still looking for a way to achieve crisp salmon skin, this may be the answer, since the pan is so much hotter than you can achieve indoors).

Tonight, armed with my new technique/experience, I rustled around in the cooler and unearthed wild mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, English peas, and spinach.  I grilled each vegetable one at a time, scraping into a serving bowl as I went along, finishing with a handful of quickly-toasted nuts, minced fresh herbs from my pots on the deck (basil, mint, oregano), a crumble of Parm, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  Frankly, that was dinner - whole-meal-worthy and truly yummy.

I was needing a just-vegetables dinner after Saturday's not-moderate feast, uff.  Stacey, Debbie and Stu The Wine Genius Williams, and Michelle (here for the weekend) joined us for a pool-n-grill Saturday, sunny and hot and perfect for a barbecue.   I slow-braised two spice-rubbed pork shoulders pretty much all afternoon in the oven, then finished them on the grill, crisping up the exterior and slathering them in barbecue sauce.  We ate the pork pulled apart on rolls, with a side of blue-cheese coleslaw, fresh farmer's market snap peas, and apple pie a la mode for dessert.  The wine - thanks to Stu, so delicious.  Blast!

So tomorrow, more chapa vegetables, this time to toss with pasta.  I'm thinking more swiss chard, garlic, and sweet onion, as well as the one little slice of pancetta I have left from last week's Springtime Fava Bean Salad with Poached Egg (like I said, I'm seriously digging this book).  Stay tuned...

From www.cookinglight.com

I hope you're relaxing right about now, enjoying the start of a long Memorial Day weekend.  It's a weekend for griling, of course - I'm planning a little grilled tasty every day.

First up, tonight, skewers of salmon and shrimp, marinated first in something citrus-y/garlicky, to serve alongside pasta (for the kids) and stir-fried pea pods.

Tomorrow night, chicken fajitas - more marinade, this time spicy/garlicky (always the garlic).  I'll marinate peppers and onions too and grill them in my new Weber vegetable grill pan (it'll be the first time, I'll let you know how it goes...).  Soft tortillas, salsa, avocado, all good.

And Monday, for a late lunch, I plan on roasting potatoes on the grill (an experiment, on a baking sheet; again, I'll let you know how it goes...), then grilling halved baby zucchinis and onions which I'll finish with a little balsamic vinaigrette and fresh herbs (I'm picturing a warm salad) and a few hot dogs (mostly for the kids; I'm thinking I'm going to be very happy with grilled potatoes and zucchini).

For more inspiration (and actual recipes!), check out this Cooking Light link for grilling fish.  The swordfish skewers (pictured above) look particularly delicious, as does the orange/bourbon marinade for salmon (to me, orange and salmon are dreamy together).

And oh, if you're looking for something a bit more ribstickin', like say, ribs, check out my favorite (no-fail) pork rib recipe.  The Texas-style beef rib recipe featured this week in the NYTimes looks fun (and easy) too.  (In fact, for inspiration, check out the whole Times Topics on grilling - packed with info and recipes.)  And for full-on porkiness, it's hard to beat a slow-grilled pork shoulder (pictured), rubbed with lots of sweet spice and pulled apart to devour in buns.  Oh yeah...

Happy grilling!

Oops, I Did it Again! Somehow I accidentally slow-roasted another pork shoulder, this time an Italian version (think fennel seeds, tons of garlic, oregano, and thyme). Same technique as carnitas, same silky, porky result. Rarrrr, LOVE it. Nice to have sitting in the fridge over the weekend, ready to eat as is, or toss with a bit of rigatoni, or enjoy alongside creamy polentaaaaah, or stuff into a warm, soft roll, with thinly sliced onions and pickles, for a killer sandwich. None of those options suck and I'm glad to have them all. Yeah.

I met Susie Silpada Sales for a last-minute Friday Morning Coffee with Suz today (both Kim and I were busy on Tuesday, so Tuesday Morning Coffee with Kim & Suz had to wait for next week, boo). So fun! So necessary! Nothing like the elixir of girly chat (and Almond Joy candy bars - Suz brought Almond Joy candy bars! My very, very favorite, yay!) to wrap up a craaaaz-ow week. What to tell first? About Nathan's new school? Driving through a hailstorm? Eating delicious, strange animal parts, barefoot, in front of a television crew? Cooper's vomiting all over Stacey's car? My parents' new home? My accidental flashing of the Metal sign at a religious event?

And then, what to listen to first? About Suz's impending move? Her kids' new schools? Her new Susie Sales job? Her new kickass fur vest and totally Metal boots? It was too much, there's just too much going on. Life is wild right now, in a good way, guess we'll just have to get together again (hee, hee) - like on Monday to celebrate The Maven's 40th! Yes, that nauseatingly young beyotch is about to join the ranks of us cougars. Hope she can handle it... I'm cooking and haven't quite decided yet what I'm making. Stay tuned...

There is nothing moderate about this heat, yowza! Hellish (96 degrees), humid (dewpoint in the 70s, that's tropical, my friends, yuck), scorching (nary a cloud to cast even a bit of shade), and stifling (just a whisper of muggy breeze would be better than nothing). Basically it's dripping, nasty, ugly HOT. A salad day, or ooh, a gazpacho day, both sound lovely, although I had neither. Meh, the heat makes me feel like I'm swimming in more of a fog than usual, so while I made it to the grocery store, I didn't actually prepare anything with the ingredients. Lame! I know! Perhaps I'll be more inspired tomorrow, when I get my veggies on. And, I picked up a pork tenderloin at the store today that I plan on grilling tomorrow with lots of barbecue sauce for quick pulled-pork sandwiches. (Nowhere near as gorgeous and decadent as the pork shoulder I slow-grilled last summer, but pretty damn tasty nonetheless.) In fact, I'll do it in the afternoon, before things get crazy in the evening, so we'll be good to go for a couple of days. Yeah, that'll put me back on track! I need to get back into fighting form for the weekend - I'm bringing a dessert to a dinner party on Friday night, Stu The Wine Genius and his wife Debbie are coming for dinner on Saturday, and Sunday the Baseball Moms and their boys are coming for a big swim. Woo hoooooo, it's gonna be a HOT one!